Professional Writing Certificate

Introduction

The Professional Writing Certificate is a non-degree, graduate certificate program composed of 18 credit hours, including a course that provides an overview of the field, specialized courses designed to explore both theoretical and practical concerns of the professional who writes, and, optionally, a supervised course that includes an internship and development of a professional portfolio of work. The Professional Writing Certificate is appropriate for the working professional and for candidates in the technical, scientific, business, non-profit, and grant writing fields.

Credits earned toward the Professional Writing Certificate may apply to the Master of Arts in English (MAE) at the graduate program director’s discretion. If certificate coursework is applied to the MAE program, this certificate coursework can be no more than six years old at the time of graduation from the MAE program. Candidates must complete all coursework for the certificate program within six years, including any transfer work.

Admission

Applications to the Professional Writing Certificate require the following:

an application for graduate admission to Northern Kentucky University.

official transcripts for all undergraduate and graduate work.

a bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution.

an undergraduate GPA of at least 2.5 on a 4.0 scale.

a grade of B or higher on all graduate work previously taken that may apply to the certificate.

At the discretion of the graduate program director, a writing sample may be required for evaluation and undergraduate courses recommended for applicants who did not focus on English or writing at the undergraduate level.

Transfer credit

No more than 25% of the required curriculum for the Professional Writing Certificate may be transferred to NKU from a regionally accredited university or applied from previous NKU coursework.

♦ Indicates prerequisite.

Certificate Curriculum

The Certificate in Professional Writing requires 18 hours of coursework, distributed as follows: